كل أمرِ عذب ولين من السهل أن يُجرح - Patrick White

If I have not lost my mind I can sometimes hear it preparing to defect

I am interested in detail. I enjoy decoration. By accumulating this mass of detail you throw light on things in a longer sense: in the long run it all adds up. It creates a texture — how shall I put it — a background, a period, which makes everything you write that much more convincing. Of course, all artists are terrible egoists. Unconsciously you are largely writing about yourself. I could never write anything factual; I only have confidence in myself when I am another character. All the characters in my books are myself, but they are a kind of disguise.

Two people do not lose themselves at the identical moment, or else they might find each other, and be saved. It is not as simple as that.